When the 8th Ecocity World Summit took place in Istanbul in 2009, all eyes were on Copenhagen and Climate Change.

The Summit wanted to send a clear message to decision makers by choosing the theme Urban Ecological Foundations for Climate Solutions that showed how the city is a key player in making change.

Luc Rabouin, the executive director of the Montréal Urban Ecology Centre, was one of the participants. He wanted to draw people's attention to the fact that "sustainable development cannot exist in a world where there are no ecocities to support it." He talked about problems, such as urban heat islands, but mostly about solutions, such as the crucial role citizen participation and action play in the execution of neighbourhood initiatives.

Rabouin presented the MUEC's Imagine Milton-Parc Sustainable Development Laboratory. You can read it here.

Since 1990, Ecocity Summits have been held in California (1990 and 2008), Australia (1992), Senegal (1996), Brasil (2000), China (2002), India (2006), and Turkey (2009).

At the end of the conference, Richard Register, the president of Ecocity Builders, stood beside Rabouin and announced that the next Ecocity World Summit would take place in Montréal from August 22 to 26, 2011.